Michael Arnold

LEPC 5 Coordinator/Principal Planner
Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council

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I graduated in 2002 with a BURP and 2004 with a MURP

I am a Principal Planner at the Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council since April 2006 where I coordinate all Emergency Planning activities and acts as staff to the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) District 5. I also assist local governments in preparing Evaluation and Appraisal Reports (EARs) and EAR Based Amendments. I am a native Floridian from Miami and hold both a Bachelor's (2003) and Master's Degree (2005) in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida Atlantic University.

I hope to eventually be a Certified Emergency manager and continue my work with county, regional and state wide emergency management planning and preparedness.

Chris Barry, AICP

Planner
Jon E. Schmidt and Associates

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I graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a Bachelor’s in Urban & Regional Planning in August 2003 and a Master’s in Urban & Regional Planning in December 2006.  Prior to graduating I interned with Song & Associates, a West Palm Beach architectural firm, and with the Palm Beach County (PBC) Zoning Division.  Since graduating in 2003 I have been practicing in the field of land planning both privately and publicly and have held positions as a Site Planner II with the PBC Zoning Division and as a Land Entitlement Project Manager with Centex Homes.  Currently I am a Planner with Jon E. Schmidt & Associates, a small to mid-size land planning and landscape architecture firm in West Palm Beach.  The duties of my current position are as follows:

• Due diligence research regarding the development potential of various properties;
• Proposal and budget preparation for the firm;
• Coordination with other professionals (i.e., surveyors, civil/traffic engineers, architects) for submittal preparation;
• Preparation and submittal of land entitlement applications and site plans for commercial, industrial, residential, institutional and civic properties in unincorporated Palm Beach County and various municipalities throughout the County;
• Neighborhood and community meeting coordination and representation;
• Public hearing representation; and
• Overall guidance of projects through the land entitlement process.

Outside of work I am active in my community as the Vice President of the Pineapple Park Neighborhood Association and as a Board Member of The Palm Beach County Planning Congress.  In 2007 I was the chairperson of the Northwood Mixed Use Regulations Review Technical Committee, which was a volunteer committee that worked with City of West Palm Beach CRA staff and Planning staff on code amendments to assist redevelopment in the Northwood Mixed Use District, a historic area north of downtown West Palm Beach.

In the future I hope to be more involved with affordable housing and community empowerment. 

Seth C. Behn, AICP

BehnS@gtlaw.com
Sr. Land Use Planner
Greenberg Traurig P.A.

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After a career as a woodworker and boat-builder, I enrolled in the University of Miami’s Graduate School of Architecture.  After completing the first year of study at UM, I transferred to FAU’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning where I completed my M.U.R.P. in April, 2005.  I am an AICP certified planner, member of APA-Florida, and volunteer as the Professional Development Officer for the Palm Beach County Planning Congress.

My professional career began with an internship of one year with the City of Miami Beach Planning Department.  While still at FAU I was hired to work for the planning and landscape architecture firm Land Design South in West Palm Beach, where I remained for two years.  For the last three years I have been employed by the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig, also in West Palm Beach, as a Senior Land Use Planner.  My role at Greenberg Traurig is that of project manager overseeing the governmental approval process for residential, commercial and industrial project development.

Shekeria L. Brown, AICP

Community and Economic Development Manager
Community Redevelopment Associates of Florida

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I graduated from FAU’s Master of Urban and Regional Planning program in May 2002 with a concentration in community and economic development. While attending school full-time, I also worked full-time as a research associate for FAU’s Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions (CUES). What an experience! I would not be where I am today in this field, if it wasn’t for my experience at FAU (as a student and professional) and the practical experience, guidance and connections offered to me early in my career. I worked at CUES for 3 years on projects ranging from transportation studies for FDOT to neighborhood plans in Dania Beach.

I love the concept of community and truly believe the emphasis should always be on community. Today I am the community and economic development manager for Community Redevelopment Associates of Florida. Working for an urban affairs consulting firm everyday I have the opportunity to do what I enjoy. My main responsibilities include planning, administration, and implementation of Federal and State programs that fund a variety of affordable housing, community and economic development initiatives. In addition to working with local government staff, I work directly with the community - people of all ages and backgrounds, businesses of all sizes, and community based organizations with varying missions.

I have been working for the same firm for 5 1/2 years and enjoy the variety of projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on. Each day I learn something new. My professional goal is to never stop learning regardless of my title.

Outside of work, I have served on the board of the Broward Section of the American Planning Association (APA), and am a current member of APA and the American Institute of Certified Planners. I am also active in Emerge Broward, a program of Leadership Broward.

Bradley J. Currie, AICP

Principal
Land Design South

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Brad Currie is a Principal of Land Design South, one of south Florida’s premier, multi-disciplinary Landscape Architecture firms. Services include land planning, landscape architecture, environmental and transportation. Land Design South is located in West Palm Beach and Port St. Lucie. Brad is Principal of the Port St. Lucie office. In addition to overseeing the Port St. Lucie office Brad is responsible for a variety of land planning projects that encompass site planning, master planning and application submittals.  His responsibilities include: research and preparation of land planning reports and development applications; preparation of and representation of Developments of Regional Impact (DRI); and directing site planning and landscaping staff.  As a Planner, Brad dealt primarily with preparing and submitting rezoning applications and Comprehensive Plan Amendments, and coordinating the applications with clients and the public sector.  His education in planning was comprised of both theory and practical work, providing Brad with an understanding of planning principals and techniques used to apply his education to project design.  Brad also has experience working in the public sector and for a residential developer, affording him vital knowledge of the different elements in the land development game.

Joe Heilman

Natural Resource Specialist
Broward County Water Management Division

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Joe graduated from FAU with a Bachelors degree in Urban & regional Planning in 2003 and then a Masters degree in 2004. I served as the Vice-President of the Florida Atlantic Planning Society from 2003-2004. Currently I am employed by Broward County’s Water Management Division, where my duties include managing various water conservation projects for the County’s water utility and performing planning services for dependent water control districts. I am an active member of the Alumni Society and take great pleasure in volunteering my time and resources to FAPS events like the River Clean ups and annual tailgate.

Tykus R. Holloway, P.E., AICP

tykus.holloway@kimley-horn.com
Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

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I have worked in the private sector within South Florida at multidisciplinary engineering firms as an Urban Planner and Transportation Engineer.

I am currently employed by Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., a multidisciplinary engineering and planning consulting firm with offices nationwide. The company was ranked by FORTUNE magazine as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For," in 2008. My title is Planner/Engineer or “Plangineer.”

I work for public and private clients throughout the State of Florida providing planning and engineering design services. My areas of specialization include comprehensive plan updates, evaluation and appraisal reports, community master plans, transportation concurrency exception area justification reports, traffic impact studies, parking analyses, and multimodal plans (transit, bicycle, and pedestrian).

I am personally committed to developing strategies and plans to empower disadvantaged communities. I eventually want to establish my own engineering/planning practice where a primary goal would be to help empower low-income communities. I also plan to publish articles that raise awareness and emphasize the importance of incorporating the psychological and social realm of urban planning into physical and place-based plans. Lastly, I hope to make significant contributions to the urban planning community that extend beyond my technical skills to truly have an impact on the quality of life in the communities we serve.

Marc Kurbansade, AICP

marc.kurbansade@kimley-horn.com
Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

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I received my M.U.R.P. from Florida Atlantic University in May 1998. While pursuing my degree, I worked in the VPT Lab (previously the GIS Lab) under the guidance of Dr. Prosperi and then Director Scott Burton.

Once I received my degree, I went on to work for Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan as a GIS Analyst. From PBS&J, I took my knowledge and desire for software application development and took a hiatus from Planning to pursue software and application development at Merrill Lynch. I re-entered the Planning profession several years later back in South Florida at Land Design South where I remained for approximately three years and worked alongside several FAU alumni (Brad Currie and Seth Behn). I am now employed by Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., in their Dallas, Texas office. True to the nature of “Planning” I wear many hats at KHA, working for both private and public sector clients. Some of my specialties include entitlements for all types of development projects (e.g., Planned Development ordinances; representation of development approval petitions before both staff-level committees and local governmental bodies), master planning & site planning for all types of development projects, municipal Comprehensive Plans, and Geographic Information Systems applications.

I am also actively involved in the American Planning Association, serving as the Professional Development Officer for the North Central Texas Section of the APA for the past 18 months and have recently been appointed to serve as the Certification Maintenance Coordinator for the Texas State Chapter of the APA.

Nixon Lebrun, CFM, AICP

Planner, City of Miami Gardens

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I graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning in December 2002, a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning in August 2004 and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration in May 2008. I briefly worked as a Planning Associate for the City of Homestead from January to June 2004. In January 2005, I accepted the position of Plans Processor III at the Planning and Zoning Department of Miami-Dade County. I held that position until July of that same year when I was hired as a Zoning Technician and promoted shortly after, to the position of Planner for the newly-incorporated City of Miami Gardens. My day-to-day activities involve primarily current land use activities, from interpreting the Zoning Code and Land Use Plan, to writing recommendation to the City Council for rezonings, variances and special exceptions, to performing site inspections, to reviewing of zoning requests, building permits, Certificates of Uses and Certificates of Occupancy and to managing the Floodplain Regulations. I am an ASFPM Certified Floodplain Manager and also an AICP Certified Planner. I am very much interested in land use law and am planning to attend Nova Southeastern University Law School in the near future. I am also earnestly seeking to become a Minister of the True and Living Word, and by the grace of God, this too will come to fruition soon.

Simon O. Martinez, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

Architect/Planner, Hanson Professional Service

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I graduated from FAU, Spring 2007 with a dual degree (B. Arch and MURP) Bachelor of Architecture with a major in Architecture and Master of Urban and Regional Planning. While pursing my degrees, I worked full time for FAU as a computer coordinator and a few years later for RRW-Architects and Planner. I have always been interested in technology and how it can be applied towards the many intricate layers of sustainable building design within the urban and metropolitan fabric of space.

I am currently working for Hanson Professional Service as an architect/planner. Within the multidiscipline firm, I have introduced and helped implement 4D construction building design methods and techniques with a sustainable approach to building design. So far, I have created and conducted BIM and 4D design presentations to USF, BC and IRSC to promote the usage and professional merger of technology and professional practice. The day to day activities include project management, programming, site and environmental analysis and design, schematic design, engineering systems coordination, design development, code research, due diligence research, master community planning and space planning for a wide variety of public and private sector clients.

Finally, having achieved the LEED AP certification in 2008 has further helped me understand the many sustainable concepts, principles, techniques, methods and feasibility of implementation within the professional practice, but now my next goal is to obtain the AICP.

Representative completed/in progress projects include:

• West Palm Beach Housing Authority – Master Planning and architectural services for low affordable housing.
• Wellington Municipal Complex, Design Criteria Package
• MacDill Airforce Hanger, Design Criteria Package
• Children’s Medical Service Facility Renovation, West Palm Beach, Fl.
• Broward Community College (South Campus), Pembroke Pines, Fl. Architectural Designer, lead of production and LEED Project Administrator for the new remodeling project based on 62,000 square foot 2 story building
• Southroad Medical Office Building, Wellington, FL.  Architectural Designer of the interior work for two (2) new 14,000 SF medical office buildings.
• Suffolk Construction Company Building, West Palm Beach, Fla.   Architectural designer. Project involved renovating the existing two story office building.   A total of 25,000 sq. ft
• Palm Beach County Central Chiller Plant study and design, West Palm Beach, Fla.   Architectural designer.  Preliminary design and feasibility study for the new central energy plant to serve the existing government center.
• Suntrust Bank, South Florida, Fl. Project coordinator and integral part of the management and production team for several 3000-5000 square foot prototype buildings all throughout South Florida.
• HSBC Bank, South Florida, Fl. Project coordinator and integral part of the management and production team for several prototype buildings all throughout South Florida. 

The professional affiliations I am currently a member of include the following,
AIA, NCARB, APA, FAPA, USGBC, GBCI and PBCC Career consultant and hopefully soon AICP.

Renee Miller, AICP

Senior Planner, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission
Silver Spring, Maryland

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I graduated in 2002 with my Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning, concentrating in environmental planning.  Honestly?  I've never worked in enviornmental planning. I have worked in transportation, land use, GIS and now zoning.  Currently, I am a senior planner for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, in Silver Spring, Maryland.  M-NCPPC is one of the oldest bi-county regional agencies, with over 80 years of history.  At M-NCPPC, I work in Montgomery County Park and Planning as a zoning analyst.  As a zoning analyst, I specialize in reviewing rezoning applications and special exceptions (conditional uses).  Although, I review only rezoning and special exceptions, my reviews involve site plan and design.  (Planning in Maryland is not planning in Florida and although both states have smart growth policies, the way planning is done between the two would take me longer than a paragraph to explain!)  I also work with other divisions on special projects, such as coordinating the conversion of the zoning maps from paper and AutoCAD into electronic maps using GIS and providing input into master plan amendments.

I am a certified planner.  I passed the AICP exam in 2006.  In 2000/01, I was in the first group of students to revitalize Florida Atlantic Planning Students and created the liaison position between Broward APA and FAU.  I was extremely active in the Florida Chapter APA, first as a representative as BAPA president and then as Secretary of FAPA.  Currently, I am running for president-elect in the National Capital APA, which is comprised of Montgomery and Prince George's County, MD and Washington, D.C.  I think that what I most want to do with my career in planning is educate.  I would like to keep educating both the planning professional in working towards AICP certification and planning students to help guide them into determining their goals either through the graduate program or professional organization.

Bill Nemser, AICP

Bnemser@ci.wellington.fl.us
Project Manager
Planning and Zoning Division
Village of Wellington

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Bill Nemser is a project manager for the Village of Wellington, Fl. His work includes:

• Economic development
• Comprehensive planning
• Policy development
• Interpretation of zoning-related issues
• Plan review
• Project and policy-based presentations before elected governing bodies, various planning entities and the public

Bill is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and holds Masters (2005) and Bachelors (2003) degrees in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida Atlantic University where he was awarded an Environmental Growth Management Fellowship from the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions. Bill was named the FAPA Outstanding Student Planner of the year in 2004. Prior to joining the planning community, Bill Nemser worked in the real estate profession and served in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Bill is a member of the FAU Parliament of Owls and is the current president of the FAU School of Urban and Regional Planning Alumni Society.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Palm Beach County Planning Congress.

Bill’s future plans include continuing his various side projects that allow him to research and write about the various facets of the professional planning profession.

John Patterson, AICP

john@fortmyersbeachfl.gov
Floodplain Development Coordinator
Town of Fort Myers Beach, FL

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I earned my Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in Urban Development and Design in 1997. I moved to Southwest Florida in 2000, where I have worked for the cities of North Port and Cape Coral. As a planner and planner II for these cities, I performed current planning work reviewing development plans, subdivisions, vacations, variances, and special exceptions. In October 2008, I started a new position with the Town of Fort Myers Beach, FL. I am serving as the floodplain development coordinator, which entails: managing the town’s participation in the National Flood Insurance Program; creating and implementing the town’s new development review program; working on various historic preservation projects; and representing the town on various committees of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council (SWFRPC).

I have been married to my wife Patty for four (4) years, and have an 18 year old step-daughter, Ashley. We currently live in the City of North Port, FL.

Sarah Sinatra, AICP

Assistant Director of Planning
Calvin, Giordano & Associates

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I graduated from FAU with a Masters in Urban & Regional Planning in 2003. Since then I have worked in the Village of Wellington as an Associate Planner and have been at Calvin, Giordano & Associates for the past 4 years as the Assistant Director of Planning. My work experience includes municipal Planning Director duties such as processing zoning requests, land use plan amendments, site plan reviews, rezoning petitions and presentations to city commissions. I have also been responsible for writing Evaluation and Appraisal Reports, Comprehensive Plans, Zoning and Land Development codes, form-based codes and transit oriented zoning codes. As the Assistant Director of Planning for Calvin, Giordano & Associates, I act as the Community Development Director for the City of Weston, the City of West Park and the Town of Surfside. Within these roles, I perform day to day planning and zoning activities, present staff reports and recommendations to the Commissions, the Planning and Zoning Boards and provide customer service assistance to residents, developers and business owners. In the future I hope to have opportunities to work with new municipalities and utilize creative zoning techniques.